Does Offset Printing
Have a Future?
Of course it does! Taking a quick look back—and a long look
forward—at the graphic arts technology that laid the foundation
for an industry.
By Jeffrey Steele
T
oday, some print service professionals may be asking if offset
printing still has a future in the industry. When addressing that
issue, it is essential to examine offset’s recent history, said Bruce
Leigh Myers, assistant professor, School of Media Sciences at
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY.
“Through the middle of the first decade
of the 2000s, offset benefited from technological advances that allowed printers
to improve productivity,” he reported.
Improvements were most notably
evident in shorter makeready. Shorter
makereadies and higher overall productivity enabled offset printers to effectively
accept jobs of lower run lengths, capturing more of the market. But the robust
economy of that period came to an end
with the recession toward the end of the
decade, and the shrinking business climate adversely effected lithographers as
well as the vendor community, especially
traditional printing press manufacturers.
With the recession’s sharp reduction in
business, many companies went out of
business or merged with other entities.
The result was a glut of used equipment
on the market, and press manufactur-
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ers were dramatically impacted. Some
markets are shells of their former selves,
at both the sophisticated end of the
market as well as the less complicated
end. For instance, annual report printing
once represented tremendous opportunities for the best lithographers, not to
mention professional photographers and
graphic designers.
“Today, many public companies eschew
the expensive paper and high-quality
imagery in favor of annual reports that
are less flashy, almost purely functional
in nature,” Myers noted. “Printing of
automotive brochures is another example
of a largely diminished market at the top
end of the commercial scale.
“At the other end of the market,
offset forms printers and the smaller,
fast-turnaround duplicator markets also
have suffered, due to advantages in digi-
QUICK PRINTING / November 2014
tal printing and copying functionality,
even before the most recent recession,”
he explained.
In recent years, there have not been
revolutionary technological advances
imparting new paradigms, affecting
widespread segments of the market.
But the offset printing market can
largely be considered stable and “rightsized,” he said.
The most successful printing firms, he
added, incorporate offset printing into
broader communications solutions. Here,
offset offers a diversity of products and
a level of quality largely unparalleled
among other technologies. “Not every
job needs the extremely fast turnaround,
nor does every job require personalization features offered by digital printing
technologies,” Myers said.
“Offset technology can be described as
mature. Commercial lithographic printers can benefit from the inherent stability
that enables more precise business models and planning, and enjoy more incremental technological changes as they are
introduced,” he continued.
In the commercial sector, offset offers
quality and a wide variety of substrates
that appeal to many segments of the creative community. These benefits, combined with mature workflows, mean offset will be viable in coming years. “While
lithographic printing does not represent
the primacy it once did, it is unlikely
that electrophotographic digital printing technologies will take away greater
portions of the present offset market,”
he observed.
“High-volume continuous inkjet technologies are in their relative infancy, as
are nano-ink technologies. These promise to enjoy success in certain market
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segments initially, but it will likely be some time before they
mature to the point where they can replace litho on a widespread scale. These newer digital technologies will likely complement, rather than replace, offset lithography, most notably
[in instances] where faster turnarounds are required.”
Markets for Offset
Among the market areas that can be served with offset, the
packaging segment is a standout, Myers reported. A number
of growing offset printers are very successfully competing with
rotogravure printers in the packaging arena. (Read more on that
trend next month in the December 2014 issue of Quick Printing.)
Other potential growth opportunities include hybrid technologies that retrofit high-speed inkjet technologies on lithographic presses.
That enables variable-data functionality to be incorporated
with the benefits of conventional data, Myers said. “In looking
at cost per page and duty cycles, emerging digital printing technologies can
compete with sheetfed offset technologies and complement litho,” he added.
“I know of no digital technologies that
can compete with web-offset in terms
of duty cycle. It is unlikely that markets
currently served by large offset web
presses will lose share to digital printing
technologies in the foreseeable future.
Again, in my view, the most successful
companies offer offset as a viable technology as part of an overall communications and marketing strategy that can
include other media types.”
Going forward, print service providers (PSPs) need to seize opportunities
beyond packaging and longer-run work,
Myers advised. He urged them to exploit
the advantages print offers in terms of a
tactile experience unmatched by any other media type. Complex printing jobs, including custom diecutting, spot finishing,
embossing, and foil stamping all can enhance the tactile nature
of print and help printers break through the perception of commoditization permeating the marketplace.
Of course, advanced finishing technologies are available in
other types of printing besides offset. “But in educating buyers
on what’s possible and effective in communications strategies,
all printing technologies will likely benefit, including litho,” he
says. “Offset printers need to take advantage of these and other
inherent benefits to address opportunities.
“Due to its stability, offset technology in particular is poised
to address a wide variety of marketing, publishing, and communications needs,” Myers concluded.
much they’ve increased the return to their direct-mail campaign or traffic to their website,” Paparozzi said. “And they
will communicate that value to clients, never assuming they
get it. Put simply, when there was a lot more work to go
around, it was about our capabilities. Now it’s about showing
clients and prospects how our capabilities will make them
more successful. That’s the future of offset. And it’s the future
of our industry.”
What PSPs Say
Among the PSP community, there are operators who see a
profitable future using offset as one of the arrows in their quivers. “It will be around,” said Michael Brown, president of the
AlphaGraphics location in Pineville, NC.
At one time, the shop was around 60 percent offset in house
and is now down to 26 percent, with the largest drop coming
in the last five to seven years.
“We’re still doing some short-run brochures; it’s mainly the brochure work,”
Brown said. “It makes sense in anything
above 1,000. The break-even on our
14-by-20 [inch] press is 500 sheets...
Being in the short-run color business,
having the color offset press is very
handy. The nice thing about it is it’s paid
off. We can still pull some margins out of
it on lower quantities because it is.”
Another AlphaGraphics location, this
one across the country in Idaho Falls,
ID, also has found a niche for offset. The
company bought a Heidelberg Speedmaster with the Anicolor inking unit
about two years ago, reported manager
Walt Baker. “We were mainly getting
larger orders that really didn’t fit our
digital equipment, larger than, say, 500
impressions, where we began to think
about going to offset,” he recalled. “And we were doing runs
much longer than that. The customer really expects to have a
very high-quality piece. That suggests offset.”
Having looked at several options, AlphaGraphics found the
quality it sought in the Speedmaster with Anicolor. Baker and
team get offset quality, and the Heidelberg allows the shop to
produce runs as low as 500. With the same equipment, they’re
cost-effectively running 50,000 pieces. “There was a fit with a
much broader gamut of applications by going with the Anicolor,” Baker said.
He believes that if a shop’s customers require a low-cost, highquality product at greater run lengths of perhaps 500 to 1,000,
offset is the solution.
Baker added that his shop is in a small enough town that its
targets are anyone who needs a print product, and it has built
its business on that model. “We’re trying to build our equipment package and capabilities to meet any need,” he said.
“Greater run lengths -- we bought offset to do that, while keeping the digital for shorter run lengths and quicker turn times.”
That said, Baker remembered there was a learning curve associated with the acquisition of the offset. “Coming from a digital
model, we found there was a higher level of skills needed of the
operator,” he said.
“We had some growing pains,” Baker admitted, “but we were
able to lean on our vendors and Heidelberg, in particular, as a
reference for any kind of problems.” ◗◗
“Offset technology can
be described as mature.
Commercial lithographic
printers can benefit from the
inherent stability that enables
more precise business
models and planning, and
enjoy more incremental
technological changes as
they are introduced.”
Offset, Industry’s Commonalities
For his part, AMSP, NAPL, and NAQP chief economist Andy
Paparozzi sees a future for offset. The question is, he said, who
will share in that future?
“Certainly production efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness
will be essential because, despite consolidation, the offset market
will continue to be far too competitive for anything less,” he noted. “But production efficiency will not be enough. Companies
that win offset’s future will also document their value to clients.
“They will know, for example, how much money they’ve
saved the client, how much time they’ve saved them, how
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